Local snowboarder Kelsey Boyer survived a traumatic brain injury and started a nonprofit to help others
Growing up in the Amish countryside of Pennsylvania, Kelsey Boyer watched horse-drawn buggies roll past, learned to churn butter and listened to her dad speak Pennsylvania Dutch to their neighbors. Albeit an unconventional backdrop for a snowboarding career, Boyer fell in love with riding at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in ninth grade, as it was only a 10-minute drive from her family’s house.
At age 20, she moved west to Breckenridge, Colorado, where she could train for slopestyle competitions while studying for an online health and exercise science degree from the University of Utah.
In 2016, everything changed. As an Olympic qualifying year, 23-year-old Boyer was laser-focused on accumulating qualification points. In her season’s first comp, she was knocked out in a crash, suffering a brain bruise. In successive contests, her head received nearly 10 more bumps. Then in March, while competing in the U.S. Revolution Tour, she caught an edge while landing a 65-foot jump. Intuitively, she knew her head was injured and requested a toboggan ride to Winter Park Resort’s clinic. A brain bleed was undetected.
Over the next two weeks, Micah Anderson and Melissa Riitano — Boyer’s friends and co-riders — noticed red flags including headaches, mood swings, combative behavior and gag reflex. A CT scan confirmed a subdural hematoma. Her brain had shifted by 11 millimeters. Boyer went into emergency brain surgery.
Her recovery was extreme. For three years, she suffered from insomnia, tinnitus, tic disorder and emotional dysregulation. Fortunately, Boyer received a grant from the High Fives Foundation, which supports injured action sport athletes, to cover a weeklong treatment at Cognitive FX in Provo, helping to rewire cognitive function. The exercises “get your brain firing and synchronized where you’re lacking,” she explains. “It was so painful.”
She adds, “I couldn’t believe $10,000 was coming between me and my health. After connecting with High Fives, I had hope and could heal.” The experience inspired Boyer to launch the Save a Brain Instagram account to provide education about the detection of traumatic brain injuries (TBI), recovery resources and connection among the TBI community.
“We don’t know enough about [brains]; this education could save a life, and we do only get one brain,” emphasizes Boyer. “Brain injuries are like a fingerprint; everyone is so different.” This can make it tricky to find a suitable head injury treatment.
Met with overwhelming feedback, she formalized the namesake nonprofit in spring 2020 to scale up education and outreach efforts, offer in-person and virtual workshops, and provide a database of traditional and alternative treatment facilities nationwide. Her friends Micah and Melissa serve as marketing director and director of social media and content for Save a Brain.
Boyer now teaches women’s snowboard camps and guides Japan trips with Beyond the Boundaries and focuses on running Save a Brain. Today, the organization’s Happy Helmets give-back program funnels new helmets from manufacturers to 80 charities, schools and youth programs worldwide. More than 3,000 donations have been made to date.
Last year, Save a Brain launched a Giro snow helmet collaboration, selling 5,600 units with each purchase supporting a helmet donation to organizations in need. A similar program for a Giro bike helmet partnership is in the works. The nonprofit also partners with local ski patrols to operate snow helmet checks for professional athletes at elite competitions.
Save a Brain’s educational programming, dubbed The Brain Factory, includes a YouTube Channel and virtual workshops. Soon, in-person workshops will be launching complete with a Brain Box, which is a sensory-stimulating collection of gifts to activate and learn about the brain. In January, the nonprofit aims to debut a podcast called The Headquarters, featuring interviews with clinic partners.
Save a Brain hosts two in-person fundraisers annually. Right Brains is a silent art auction held in Denver at the Burton store each spring and features works by action sports artists and photographers. The second is Golfing for Brains, a fall golf tournament held at Mountain Dell Golf Course on the outskirts of Salt Lake City. The organization also collaborates with regional brands and ski areas such as Woodward Park City, Snowbird and Powder Mountain for lift ticket giveaways and events.
In the long run, Boyer envisions supporting brain treatment grants like the one she received and opening a clinic. She says, “I can confidently say that the treatment program saved my life. I don’t want the financial burden to be what’s stopping somebody from living.”
